


Safe

by drowsyfantasy



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Abuse, M/M, Mild Blood
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-23
Updated: 2019-12-23
Packaged: 2021-02-25 22:08:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,354
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21922675
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/drowsyfantasy/pseuds/drowsyfantasy
Summary: Dedue finds Lorenz after a traumatic incident.
Relationships: Lorenz Hellman Gloucester/Dedue Molinaro
Comments: 1
Kudos: 28





	Safe

**Author's Note:**

  * For [wrencked](https://archiveofourown.org/users/wrencked/gifts).



The sound of muffled broken noises makes Dedue pause as he passes the familiar door, but it’s the next sound that makes his heart stop. 

As someone who works with gardening tools, the click of the shears and the sound of metal-on-metal is unmistakable. Of course, in his hands, they’re just hedge trimmers. 

Dedue heaves against the door with his shoulder and finds Lorenz slumped on the floor, a clump of violet hair on the floor, more in his fist, and the other tightly clenched around the shears stuck deep into the rat’s nest of his unwashed mess. 

A trickle of red runs down the side of his cheek as he makes that broken sobbing sound again. His eyes are unfocused. He probably can’t even see Dedue right now.

Dedue evaluates immediately that Lorenz is not in life-threatening danger so he slowly closes the door and comes around to Lorenz’s front, sinking down to his knees and making himself small. He peers up into the glazed gaze and speaks quietly. 

“Lorenz, sweetling, can you hear me? You have something sharp in your hand. Would you put it down for me?” 

The hand at his scalp relaxes and the shears drop to the floor. Dedue reaches out and knocks them away. They go skittering across the floor and under the bed. “I’m, I’m.” Lorenz bites off. 

“It’s all right. You’re safe. No one will touch you.” Dedue soothes. “But I need to check your head. I think you cut yourself.” 

“I want it off. I want it off I want it off _get it off of me GET IT OFF OF ME_!” it ends in a scream that sounds like Lorenz is going to vomit and Dedue reaches out, despite himself, and palms Lorenz’s comparatively smaller hand. 

His skin is cold and clammy and Lorenz retches but doesn’t throw up. Dedue comes closer, easing him to lay down across the floor, taking off his cloak and laying it over Lorenz’s shoulders for warmth so he doesn’t have to get up for a blanket.

“Please cut it off. Cut it all off I don’t care I want it gone. Please. Please.” Lorenz’s voice is small and terrified but he sounds more coherent and his eyes are focused, wide and indigo and wet as he looks up at Dedue. “I don’t want - anyone to touch it. Nobody can touch it. Don’t touch me. I don’t want it. They just.” His words become jumbled and Dedue gives him his hands to hold. Lorenz grabs at them frantically and holds them against his face. 

He’s so cold. Dedue prays he isn’t dying. But the blood has turned dark, a sign it stopped flowing, so the cut can’t be that bad. 

“We can cut your hair short if you like. We can shave it down if that’s what you really, truly want. But if that’s not what you want, I don’t want to rush and make a rash decision.”

“Of course I know what I want.” Now that sounds like the more rational Lorenz he knows, pomp and all, but still coherent. His voice is muffled from behind Dedue’s calloused palms. Then, silence. Just the warmth of his breath on Dedue’s fingertips.

“Would you like me to help you cut your hair?” Dedue looks down. 

Lorenz peeks through the dark fingers. His eyes are hollow. “It won’t go away.” He says. “How it felt.”

“Would it go away if I cut your hair short, like you had it, five years ago?”

The eye disappears. “Probably not,” his sigh is shaky but his voice does not waver. There is a long moment of silence. 

“I would enjoy washing your hair, if you were to let me. You know it pleases me when I can help you.” 

Another long, long moment of silence in which Dedue wonders if he said the wrong thing. 

“Oh...oh, fine then.” He’s too proud, and Dedue loves him for it. “But I can’t very well go to the baths looking like this.” 

“Can I trust you to sit and wait for me for ten minutes while I get hot coals and water from the sauna?” 

Both hands uncover his face. Lorenz is still on the floor, but all seriousness and makes direct eye contact. 

“I will wait for you here and not move.”

He comes back as quickly as he can in the late evening calm, a bucket of coals in one hand and a bucket of water in the other. Lorenz is waiting for him, shirtless, but still sitting on the floor. 

Stacking the buckets to heat the water, Dedue helps ease Lorenz across his knees and begins washing his hair. He slides his fingers smoothly through the oily roots and uses some of the powder to sop up the excess. Lorenz makes noises but doesn’t stop him, and he finds the cut, washing it gently. It’s small as he suspected. 

Lorenz remains silent as Dedue uses a comb to get out the tangles, easing through the clumps and mats. He doesn’t tug, just glides through in the water until it gets there easily. There’s a lot that comes out, having been awkwardly sliced and hacked away, but Dedue makes no comments on it, merely continuing his stroking, hand-over-comb, like he’s settling a spooked horse. 

Lorenz says nothing.

Once his hair is clean, Dedue eases Lorenz up into a sitting position, kneeling behind him and combing still. He reaches for his cloak again and uses it to absorb some of the wetness, since he doesn’t want to pull or tug or mess it up again as he might with a towel. 

“What do you need to hear right now?” Dedue murmurs. 

“Please tell me I’m safe,” comes the tiny reply. 

“You are safe, sweetling, I am the only one here with you. I promise that while I am with you, no harm will come to you. I will protect you and defend you. Thank you for choosing me.”

Lorenz slumps down and Dedue sits properly, then tugs him backwards into his lap. He can hear muffled sounds of crying and buries his face in the back of Lorenz’s neck, kissing softly and giving Lorenz his hands to place as he needs. One hand cups the wet tears from his face, the other is over his chest, warm on Lorenz’s cool skin. 

“I want to move us somewhere more warm. Can I put you in bed and under the blankets?” Dedue pauses between kisses. 

“Please. Please, it’s so cold.” Lorenz manages.

Dedue scoops him up. Lorenz weighs so little lately. He should have asked why earlier. _He should have asked why earlier_. Lorenz curls into his chest and Dedue walks him to his bed, but Lorenz shakes his head frantically as Dedue begins to lower him, clutching at his shirt. 

“No wait. Don’t. I want. I want your bed. Is. Is that okay?”

“My old room, you mean?”

“My blankets don’t smell like you anymore. My pillow is dirty.”

“We’ll have to go out into the hall and down the stairs. Others might see us.”

Lorenz closes his eyes tightly. “Put your cloak over me. I don’t want them to see my hair. My face. The rest, I don’t care about.”

“Very well, sweetling.” Dedue picks up the damp cloak and casts it over Lorenz’s upper half, tucking him against his shoulder, and carries him down to his old room. Mercifully, they are alone the entire way.

When he lays Lorenz out in his bed, he looks so small. Dedue crawls in next to him and Lorenz sighs, already warmer to the touch. His hair is still damp and he winces as Dedue reaches out to him, like an animal, trained to flinch when a hand comes out to beat it. 

“Are you afraid of me?” Dedue murmurs. 

“Not you,” Lorenz is still watching his hand, then relaxes when all that happens is a gentle stroke. Then another. Then another, then another, until Dedue is petting him like a cat. His eyes grow heavy and Dedue pulls him closer as Lorenz falls asleep in his arms.


End file.
